LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

&m — &mm¥ 1^ — 

1^14 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



THE THOUGHT OF GOD 



IN 



HYMNS AND POEMS 
Seconti Series 



By the Same Authors. 
••• 


••• 

The Thought of 


God in Hymns 


AND Poems. 


First 


Series. 


i6mo. Cloth, 


$1.00; 


paper, 


50 cents. 







THE 



THOUGHT OF GOD 



IN 



HYMNS AND POEMS 



Seconti Series 



BY 



/ 



FREDERICK L. HOSMER 

AND 

WILLIAM c' GANNETT 



OF CC;^' 






B o s T o N ^ -i-r . 

ROBERTS BROTHERS 
1894 



^^Zm 







*■ Copyright, 1894 

BY FREDERICK L, HOSMER AND 
WILLIAM C. GANNETT 



3Sntfaersitg |3regs 
John Wilson and Son, Cambridge 



CONTENTS 



■ f - 

PAGE 

One Law, One Life, One Love . . . F. L. H. . . 9 
'Who Wert and Art and Evermore 

Shalt Be ' W. C. G. . . 11 

In Lonely Vigil F. L. H. . . 13 

Edelweiss : Translation " . . 14 

Edelweiss " . . 15 

The Crowning Day W. C. G. . . 16 

The Day of God F. L. H. . . 18 

The Inward Witness " . . 20 

Thou who art Strong to Heal ... " . . 22 

The Heavenly Helper " . . 24 

Church-Bells W. C. G. . . 26 

Sun-Gleams ....>.... " . . 29 

The Grace of God F. L. H. . . 30 

In Littles W. C. G. . . 31 

With Self Dissatisfied . ... . . . F. L. H. . . 33 

Behind and Before " . . 35 

' Think on These Things ' " . . 38 

The Cross on the Flag " . . 40 



vi CONTENTS 

PAGE 

From Generation to Generation . . F. L. H. . . 42 

Holy Places " . . 44 

The Building of the Temple . . . W. C. G. . . 46 

The Word of God " . . 48 

Unto Him AU Live F. L. H. . . 50 

Easter Morn " . . 51 

Risen " . . 52 

What will the Violets be W. C. G. . . 54 

Over the Land in Glory F. L. H. . . 55 

Easter Festival " . . 57 

Discipleship . " . . 59 

The Man of Nazareth " . . 62 

Mary's Manger-Song W. C. G. . . 64 

Whittier F. L. H. . . 66 

Whittier W. C. G. . . 67 

^Nothing but a Poet ' " . . 68 

Rembrandt F. L. H. . . 70 

The Sower " . . 72 

John C. Learned " . . 75 

' Incarnate Cheer' W. C. G. . . 76 

Thirty Thousand " . . 77 

Golden Wedding " . . 79 

Twilight " . . 82 

' Death as Friend ' " . . 84 

A. L. G " . . 87 

Alma Mater F. L. H. . . 89 

The Village Meeting-House .... " . . 91 



CONTENTS vii 

PAGE 

The Days W. C. G. . . 95 

The Old Love-Song " . . 97 

The Dear Togetherness " . . 99 

Hero by Brevet " . . 101 

Nursery Logic " . . 103 

How Little Jo Named the Baby , . F. L. H. . . 106 

In the Albula Pass " . . 109 

Coronado Beach " . . Ill 

Dover W. C. G. . . 112 

We See as we Are " . . 114 

Tree-Surprise . " . . 115 

A Day in October ....... F. L. H. .. 117 



ONE LAW, ONE LIFE, ONE LOVE 

O Prophet souls of all the years, 

Bend o'er us from above ; 
Your far-oif vision, toils and tears 

Now to fulfilment move ! 

From tropic clime and zones of frost 
They come, of every name, — 

This, this our day of Pentecost, 
The Spirit's tongue of flame ! 

The ancient barriers disappear : 
Down bow the mountains high ; 

The sea-divided shores draw near 
In a world's unity. 

One Life together we confess, 

One all-indwelling Word, 
One holy Call to righteousness 

Within the silence heard : 



10 ONE LAW, ONE LIFE, ONE LOVE 

One Law that guides the shining spheres 
As on through space they roll, 

And speaks in flaming characters 
On Sinais of the soul : 

One Love, unfathomed, measureless, 

An ever-flowing sea, 
That holds within its vast embrace 

Time and eternity. 

World's Parliament of Religions 
Chicago, 1893 



*WHO WERT AND ART AND 
EVERMORE SHALT BE' 

Bring, O Morn, thy music! Bring, O 
Night, thy hushes ! 
Oceans, laugh the rapture to the storm-winds 
coursing free ! 
Suns and stars are singing. Thou art our 
Creator, 
Who wert and art and evermore shalt 
be! 

Life and Death, thy creatures, praise thee. 
Mighty Giver ! 
Praise and prayer are rising in thy beast 
and bird and tree : 
Lo ! they praise and vanish, vanish at thy 
bidding, — 
Who wert and art and evermore shalt 
be! 



12 ' WHO WERT AND ART' 

Light us ! lead us ! love us ! cry thy grop- 
ing nations, 
Pleading in the thousand tongues but nam- 
ing only thee, 
Weaving blindly out thy holy, happy pur- 
pose, — 
Who wert and art and evermore shalt 
be! 

Life nor Death can part us, O thou Love 
Eternal, 
Shepherd of the wandering star and souls 
that wayward flee ! 
Homeward draws the spirit to thy Spirit 
yearning, — 
Who wert and art and evermore shalt 
be! 

1893 



IN LONELY VIGIL 

O THOU in lonely vigil led 
To follow Truth's new-risen star 
Ere yet her morning skies are red, 
And vale and upland shadowed are, — 

Gird up thy loins and take thy road, 
Obedient to the vision be : 
Trust not in numbers ; God is God, 
And one with Him majority ! 

Soon pass the judgments of the hour. 
Forgotten are the scorn and blame ; 
The Word moves on, a gladdening power, 
And safe enshrines the prophet's fame, 

Now, as of old, in lowly plight 
The Christ of larger faith is born : 
The watching shepherds come by night, 
And then — the kings of earth at morn ! 

Emerson Commemoration, W. U. C, 1888 



EDELWEISS 

From the German of Hermann Lingg 

On the rock and girt with ice, 
Neighbor to the circling star, 

Bloomest thou, dear edelweiss. 
From all other flowers afar ; 

By their joyous spring unblest, 

Lonely on the rock's cold breast. 

Where the lightnings have their home, 
And the startled chamois listen, 

Where the plunging waters foam. 
Eagles reign, and glaciers glisten, — 

Death and terror everywhere, — 

Pure and glad thou bloomest there. 

So stands he in noble pain. 

Lone anear the arching heaven, 

Lonely proud, who worldly gain. 
Smiles and honors, all has given 

Freely as his freedom's price, — 

As thou bloomest, edelweiss ! 

1891 



EDELWEISS 

This edelweiss I wear was not first mine ; 

I had it cheaply in the little town 

Of one who from the mountains had come 

down ; 
A meek-eyed man, rough-clad, with many a 

sign 
Of burning sun and of the tempest's frown. 
Now through the valley, with its corn and 

wine, 
His star-blooms badge the thronging tourists 

fine 
Whose feet his toilsome path have never 

known. 

O prophet souls, who with bruised feet have 

trod 
The heaven-lit heights and thence to us have 

brought 
Your wider vision, your high-hearted faith, 
Your hope for Man, your larger thought of 

God,— 
We wear your edelweiss ; Life's common lot 
Ever to your high service witnesseth! 

Switzerland, 1888 



THE CROWNING DAY 

The morning hangs its signal 

Upon the mountain's crest, 

While all the sleeping valleys 

In silent darkness rest ; 
From peak to peak it flashes, 

It laughs along the sky- 
That the crowning day is coming by and by ! 
Chorus: O, the crowning day is coming. 
Is coming by and by ! 
We can see the rose of morning, 

A glory in the sky. 
And that splendor on the hill-tops 

O'er all the land shall lie 
In the crowning day that 's coming 
by and by I 

Above the generations 

The lonely prophets rise, — 
The Truth flings dawn and day-star 

Within their glowing eyes ; 



THE CROWNING DAY 17 

From heart to heart it brightens, 

It draweth ever nigh, 
Till it crowneth all men thinking, by and by ! 
Chorus : O, the crowning day is coming ! 

The soul hath lifted moments 

Above the drift of days, 
When life's great meaning breaketh 

In sunrise on our ways ; 
From hour to hour it haunts us, 

The vision draweth nigh, 
Till it crowneth living, dying, by and by ! 
Chorus .' O, the crowning day is coming ! 

And in the sunrise standing. 

Our kindling hearts confess 
That ' no good thing is failure, 

No evil thing success ! ' 
From age to age it groweth, 

That radiant faith so high, 
And its crowning day is coming by and by ! 
Chorus : O, the crowning day is coming ! 

Music : ' Gospel Hymns,' No. 416. 1886 



THE DAY OF GOD 

Thy kino;dom come, — on bended knee 

The passing ages pray ; 
And faithful souls have yearned to see 

On earth that kingdom's day. 

But the slow watches of the night 

Not less to God belong, 
And for the everlasting Right 

The silent stars are strong. 

And lo ! already on the hills 

The flags of dawn appear ; 
Gird up your loins, ye prophet souls, 

Proclaim the day is near ! 

The day in whose clear-shining light 
All wrong shall stand revealed ; 

When justice shall be throned in might, 
And every hurt be healed : 



THE DAY OP GOD 19 

When knowledge hand in hand with peace 
Shall walk the earth abroad, — 

The day of perfect righteousness, 
The promised day of God! 

M. T. S., June 12, 1891 



THE INWARD WITNESS 

O Thou wliose Spirit witness bears 

Within our spirits free 
That we thy children are and heirs 

Of thine eternity, — 

Here may this simple faith sublime 

O'er-arch us like the sky ; 
Secure below the drift of time 

Its firm foundations lie. 

Our thought overflows each written scroll, 
Our creeds, they rise and fall ; 

The life of God within the soul 
Lives and outlasts them all. 

Here may that witness clearer grow 

Each waiting heart within, 
The way of filial duty show 

And glad obedience win. 



THE INWARD WITNESS 21 

Here be life's sorrows sanctified, 
Here truth her radiance pour ; 

While hope and faith and love abide, 
Forever more and more ! 

For T. K., Omaha, 1891 



THOU WHO ART STRONG TO 
HEAL 

O Fount of Being's sea, 
Forever flowing free, 

The One in all, — 
Thou whom no eye e'er saw, 
Indwelling Love and Law, 
To thee we suppliant draw, 

On thee we call. 

Be consecrate to truth, 
In manhood as in youth, 

Our growing powers; 
That we may read thy thought 
Nature and Life inwrought, 
Thy perfect will be taught, 

And make it ours ! 

Thine image may we own 

In Man, creation's crown, 

These temples thine : 



THOU WHO ART STRONG 23 

Holy our calling be, 
From bonds of pain to free, 
And bring the liberty 
Of life divine ! 

Thy presence still abide 
Within these walls to guide, 

Inspire and bless ; 
Thou who art strong to heal, 
The Christ-like touch reveal. 
And in each spirit seal 

Thy tenderness ! 

Rush Medical College, Chicago, 1891 



THE HEAVENLY HELPER 

Unto thee, abiding ever, 

Look I in my need, 
Strength of every good endeavor, 

Holy thought and deed ! 

Thou dost guide the stars of heaven, 

Heal the broken heart, 
Bring in turn the morn and even, — 

Law and Love thou art. 

Clouds and darkness are about thee, 
Just and sure thy throne, — 

Not a sparrow falls without thee, 
All to thee is known. 

Origin and end of being, 

All things in and through, — 

Light thou art of all my seeing. 
Power to will and do. 



THE HEAVENLY HELPER 25 

Through my life, whate'er betide me, 

Thou my trust shalt be ; 
Whom have I on earth beside thee, 

Whom in heaven but thee? 



1886 



CHURCH-BELLS 

Over hills and valleys, 

Over prairies wide, 
Quiet call the church -bells 

To the altar-side. 
High in old cathedrals 

Chant the brazen lips, 
Down the leafy by-ways 

Airy pleading slips. 

In his toil the worker 

Pauses at the sound, — 
Heaven a little nearer, 

Earth a holier ground. 
At the sound the Sundays 

With low music fill, — 
Hark ! the lands are singinor, 

Then with prayers are still. 

Softer than the church-bells 
With their mellow peal, 

Softer, sweeter calling, 
Mystic voices steal ; 



CHURCH BELLS 27 

All the shadowy valleys 

Memory calls her own, 
All the spirit's hill-tops 

Listen for the tone. 



Every soul that listens 

Hears the secret chime, — 
Bells from quiet inlands 

Out of space or time ; 
Mother-tones will stir them, 

Child-appeals will start, 
Hero-deeds will set them 

Rinojins: in the heart. 



Matin calls of duty 

Wake us every day ; 
'Mid each happy labor 

Angelus says ' Pray ! * 
Every hour that passes 

Hath a vesper end, 
Breathing, ' One who sleeps not 

Is thy constant Friend.' 



28 CHURCH BELLS 

Every hope that wings us, 

Making eagle-free, 
Every shame that bows us, 

Every loyalty. 
Each new joy and laughter, 

Sorrows old that bide, — 
Are God's church-bells calling 



To an altar-side. 



1891 



SUN-GLEAMS 

As silent as the sun -gleam in the forest, 
As quiet as the shadow on the hill, 

Is the shining of the Spirit in our dimness, 
Is the falling of its calm upon our will. 

But subtler than the sun-lift in the leaf-bud, 
That thrills through all the forests, mak- 
ing May, 
And stronger than the strength that plants 
the mountains, 
Is that shining in the heart-lands, bringing 
day. 

AUSABLE FONDS, 1889 



THE GRACE OF GOD 

*My grace is sufficient for thee ' 

'Mid my life's vicissitude, 
Seeming evil mixed with good ; 
'Mid its pleasure and its pain, 
Alternating loss and gain, — 
Be thou still my staff and rod, 
AU-sustainino; grace of God! 



o o 



Like a pilgrim here I pass, 
Darkly see as through a glass ; 
Little know I of the way. 
What shall be I cannot say, — 
Let thy light upon me shine, 
All-sufficient grace divine ! 

'Mid my ever-changing mood 
God who changeth not is good ; 
And his word within I have, 
He will guard the life he gave, - 
Sing, my soul, along thy road, 
Happy in the grace of God. 



1877 



IN LITTLES 

A LITTLE House of Life, 
With many noises rife, 

Noises of joy and crime ; 
A little gate of birth 
Through which I slipped to Earth 

And found myself in Time. 

And there, not far before, 
Another little door, 

One day to swing so free ! 
None pauses there to knock, 
No other hand tries lock, — 

It knows, and waits for me. 

From out what Silent Land 
I came, on Earth to stand 

And learn life's little art. 
Is not in me to say : 
I know I did not stray, — 

Was se7it ; to come, my part. 



32 IN LITTLES 

And down what Silent Shore 
Beyond yon little door 

I pass, I cannot tell ; 
I know I shall not stray, 
Nor ever lose the way, — 

Am sent ; and all is well. 

1891 



WITH SELF DISSATISFIED 

Not when, with self dissatisfied, 

O Lord, I lowly lie, 
So much I need thy grace to guide, 

And thy reproving eye, — 

As when the sound of human praise 

Grows pleasant to my ear, 
And in its light my broken ways 

Fair and complete appear. 

By failure and defeat made wise, 

We come to know at length 
What strength within our weakness lies, 

What weakness in our strength : 

What inward peace is born of strife, 
What power, of being spent ; 

What wings unto our upward life 
Is noble discontent. 



34 WITH SELF DISSATISFIED 

O Lord, we need thy shaming look 
That burns all low desire ; 

The discipline of thy rebuke 
Shall be refining fire ! 

1893 



BEHIND AND BEFORE 

* One thing I do ; the things behind forget- 
ting 
And reaching forward to the things before, 
Unto the goal, the prize of God's high calling. 
Onward I press,' — said that great soul of 
yore. 

And in the heart, like strains of martial 
music, 
Echo the words of courage, trust, and 
cheer. 
The while we stand, half hoping, half re- 
gretting. 
Between the coming and the parting year. 

Behind are joys, fond hopes that found ful- 
filment, 
Sweet fellowships, glad toil of hand and 
brain. 



36 BEHIND AND BEFORE 

Unanswered prayers, burdens of loss and 
sorrow, 
Faces that look no more in ours again. 

Before us lie the hills, sunlit with promise, 
Fairer fulfilments than the past could 
know, 
New growths of soul, new leadings of the 
Spirit, 
And all the glad surprises God will show. 

All we have done, or nobly failed in doing, 
All we have been, or bravely striven to be, 

Makes for our gain, within us still surviving 
As power and larger possibility. 

All, all shall count; the mingled joy and 
sorrow 

To force of finer being rise at last : 
From the crude ores in trial's furnace smelted 

The image of the perfect life is cast. 

* Onward I press, the things behind forget- 
ting 
And reaching forward to the things be- 
fore : ' 



BEHIND AND BEFORE 37 

Ring the brave words like strains of martial 
music 
As we pass through the New Year's 
opened door. 

1890 



*THmK O]^ THESE THINGS' 

' Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things 
are honorable, whatsoever things are just, whatso- 
ever things are pure^ whatsoever things are lovely, 
whatsoever things are of good report, if there he 
any virtue, and if there he any praise, think on 
these things.'' 

Whatsoever is just and pure, 

Think on these things, my soul ! 
Earth shall vanish, but these endure, 
Think on these things, my soul ! 
When all else shall fail thee, 
These shall still avail thee ; 
Think on these things, strive for these things, 
Cherish these things, my soul ! 

Truth and honor, they call to thee. 
Think on these things, my soul ! 

What of virtue and praise there be, 
Think on these things, my soul ! 



THINK ON THESE THINGS 39 

These have been the glory 
Of all human story ; 
Think on these things, strive for these things, 
Cherish these things, my soul ! 

Faithful spirits before have gone, 

Think on these things, my soul I 
Grand thy heritage, hero-won. 
Think on these things, my soul ! 
From all brave endeavor 
Springeth good forever ; 
Think on these things, strive for these things, 
Cherish these things, my soul ! 

Music: 'Gospel H^'mns,' No. 282 



THE CROSS ON THE FLAG 



Fkom age to age they gather, all the brave 

of heart and strong, 
In the strife of truth with error, of the right 

against the wrong ; 
I can see their gleaming banner, I can hear 

their triumph-song : 

The Truth is marching on ! 



' In this sign we conquer ; ' 't is the symbol 

of our faith. 
Made holy by the might of love triumphant 

over death ; 
He finds his life who loseth it, forevermore 

it saith : 

The Right is marching on ! 

The earth is circling onward out of shadow 
into light ; 

The stars keep watch above our way, how- 
ever dark the night ; 



THE CROSS ON THE FLAG 41 

For every martyr's stripe there glows a bar 
of mornino; bright : 

And Love is marching on ! 

Lead on, O cross of martyr-faith, with thee 

is victory ! 
Shine forth, O stars and reddening dawn, 

the full day yet shall be ! 
On earth his kingdom cometh, and with joy 

our eyes shall see : 

Our God is marching on ! 

For S. S. H., Decokah, Ia., 1891 



FROM GENERATION" TO GENERA- 
TION 

O Light, from age to age the same, 

Forever living Word, — 
Here have we felt thy kindling flame, 

Thy voice within have heard. 

Here holy thought and hymn and prayer 
Have winged the spirit's powers. 

And made these walls divinely fair, — 
Thy temple, Lord, and ours. 

What visions rise above the years. 
What tender memories throng, 

Till the eye fills with happy tears. 
The heart with grateful song ! 

Vanish the mists of time and sense ; 

They come, the loved of yore, 
And one encircling Providence 

Holds all for evermore. 



PROM GENERATION, ETC, 43 

O, not in vain their toil who wrought 
To build faith's freer shrine, — 

Nor theirs whose steadfast love and thought 
Have watched the fire divine. 

Burn, holy fire, and shine more wide ! 

While systems rise and fall. 
Faith, hope, and charity abide, 

The heart and soul of all. 

QuiNCY, III. : Fiftieth Anniversary, 1890 



HOLY PLACES 

Where men on mounts of vision 

Have passed the veil within, 
Where hearts bowed in contrition 

Have risen from their sin, 
Where light on upturned faces 

Earth's Calvaries has crowned, - 
Here are her holy places, 

This, consecrated ground. 

"V^Tiere life is nobly given 

And man for man has died, 
Where bonds of wrong are riven 

And right is glorified, — 
One faith the spirit traces, 

Brightening from age to age ; 
These are earth's holy places 

And shrines of pilgrimage. 



HOLY PLACES 45 

Here, Lord, may thy revealing 

In waiting hearts be known, 
Here holier thouo^ht and feeling 

The secret Presence own : 
May prayer and aspiration, 

In-shinings of thy grace, 
And sorrow's consolation 

Make this our holy place ! 

Still from the spirit's essence 

All thino-s new meanino; win; 
The temple of thy presence 

Is ever. Lord, within. 
May outward dedication 

Have inward seal and sign. 
The spirit's consecration 

Make beautiful the shrine ! 

For C. W. W., Oakland, Cal., 1891 



THE BUILDING OF THE TEMPLE 

THE CORNER-STONE 

He laid his rocks in courses, 

His forest crowned the hill, 
He yoked the ancient forces 

And lent them to our will ; 
The heart he woke to duty, 

He graced the builder's thought, — 
He gave Creation beauty. 

And he the Temple wrought ! 

Now, Father, build within us 

The Temple's counterpart, 
Deep laid in holy purpose, 

Fair colored of the heart ; 
Its windows heaven-lighted, 

Peace and Good-will its plan, 
Its towers our Faith and Worship, 

Its doors the Love of Man ! 

1888 



BUILDING OP THE TEMPLE 47 
THE DEDICATION 

To cloisters of the spirit 

These aisles of quiet lead : 
Here may the vision gladden, 

The voice within us plead ! 
And may the dear All-I ather, 

Who maketh trouble cease, 
Here send his two, the blessed, 

His ano-els Shame and Peace ! 

Here be no man a stranger ; 

No holy cause be banned ; 
No good for one be counted 

Not good for all the land ! 
And here for prophet voices 

The message never fail, — 
* God reigns ! His Truth shall conquer, 

And Right and Love prevail! ' 

1894 



THE WORD OF GOD 

It sounds along the ages, 

Soul answering to soul ; 
It kindles on the pages 

Of every Bible scroll ; 
The psalmists heard and sang it, 

From martyr-lips it broke. 
And prophet-tongues outrang it 

Till sleeping nations woke. 

From Sinai's cliffs it echoed, 

It breathed from Buddha's tree. 
It charmed in Athens' market, 

It gladdened Galilee ; 
The hammer-stroke of Luther, 

The Pilgrims' sea-side prayer, 
The oracles of Concord, 

One holy Word declare. 



THE WORD OF GOD 49 

It dates each new ideal, — 

Itself it knows not time ; 
Man's laws but catch the music 

Of its eternal chime. 
It calls — and lo, new Justice ! 

It speaks — and lo, new Truth ! 
In ever nobler stature 

And unexhausted youth. 

It everywhere arriveth ; 

Recks not of small and great ; 
It shapes the unborn atom, 

It tells the sun its fate. 
The wing-beat of archano;el 

Its boundary never nears : 
Forever on it soundeth 

The music of the spheres ! 

1894 



UNTO HIM ALL LIVE 

O Lord of Life, where'er tliey be, 
Safe in thine own eternity, 
Our dead are Uving unto thee. 

All souls are thine and, here or there, 
They rest within thy sheltering care ; 
One providence alike they share. 

Thy word is true, thy ways are just ; 
Above the requiem ' dust to dust ' 
Shall rise our psalm of grateful trust. 

O happy they in God who rest, 

No more by fear and doubt oppressed ; 

Living or dying they are blest. 

Alleluia ! 
1888 



EASTER MORN 

On eyes that watch through sorrow's night, 

On aching hearts and worn, 
Rise thou with heahng in thy Hght, 

O happy Easter morn ! 

The dead earth wakes beneath thy rays, 

The tender grasses spring ; 
The woods put on their robes of praise, 

And flowers are blossoming. 

O shine within the spirit's skies, 

Till, in thy kindling glow. 
From out the buried memories 

Immortal hopes shall grow : 

Till from the seed oft sown in grief, 

And wet with bitter tears, 
Our faith shall bind the harvest sheaf 

Of the eternal years ! 

1890 



KISEN 

They came, bringing spices, at break of the 

day 

With hearts heavy-laden and sore, 

And, lo, from the tomb was the stone rolled 
away. 

An angel sat there by the door ! 

* Why seek ye the living 'mid emblems of 

death ? 

Not here, he is risen,' the shining one saith. 

O type through the ages and symbol of faith, 

Whose spirit is true evermore : 
The hearts we have cherished we lose not in 
death. 
The grave over love hath no power. 
There sitteth the angel, there speaketh the 

word, — 
' Not here, they are risen,' in silence is 
heard. 



RISEN 53 

O ye who still watch in the valley of tears 

And wait for the night to go by, 
Lift, lift up your eyes, on the mountains 
appears 
The day-spring of God from on high ! 
He turneth the shadows of night into day, — 
'Not here, they are risen,' his shining ones 
say. 

Santa Barbara, 1894 



WHAT WILL THE VIOLETS BE? 
S. A. M. 

What will the violets be 

There in the Spring of springs ? 
What will the bird-song be 

Where the very tree-bough sings? 
What will their Easter be 

Where never are dead to mourn, 
But brightly the faces ask, 

* O, when will the rest be born ? ' 

Brighter the Easter shines 

On the faces here below. 
That they are behind the flowers, 

The heart of the living glow. 
Beautiful secret, wait ! 

A morrow or two, and we 
Shall know in the Spring of springs 

What the violets will be. 
1886 



OVER THE LAND m GLORY 

Over the land in glory 

Breaketh the Easter morn : 
Nature repeateth her story, — 

Life out of death new-born ! 
Lo, the year 's at the Spring, 

Buds are blossoming, 
Earth and heavens sing : 

Life is life forever, evermore ! 

Listen, the birds are singing. 

Softly the south winds play ; 
Bells in the steeples ringing 

Welcome the festal day : 
And the message they bear 

On the radiant air 

Chides sorrow and fear : 

Life is life forever, evermore ! 



56 OVER THE LAND IN GLORY 

Skies of the spirit brighten, 

Hopes like the birds return : 
Hearts with the promise lighten, — 

' Blessed are they that mourn.' 
To each winter a Spring 

God will surely bring, 

And the heart shall sing : 

Life is life forever, evermore ! 

Music : ' King's-Chapel Carols,' No. 49. 1890 



EASTER FESTIVAL 

Lo, the Day of days is here, 
Earth puts on her robes of cheer : 
Day of hope and prophecy, 
Feast of Immortality ! 
Fields are smiling in the sun, 
Loosened streamlets seaward run, 
Tender blade and leaf appear, 
'T is the Springtide of the year ! 
Day of hope and prophecy. 
Feast of Immortality I 

Lo, the Day of days is here. 
Hearts, awake and sing with cheer 
He who robes his earth anew 
Careth for his children too. 
They who look to him in faith 
Triumph over fear and death ; 
Speaks the angel by the door 
' They are risen ' evermore. 



58 EASTER FESTIVAL 

Day of hope and prophecy, 
Feast of Immortality ! 

Lo, the Day of days is here, 
Music thrills the atmosphere. 
Join, ye people all, and sing 
Love and praise and thanksgiving ! 
Rocky steep or flowery mead. 
One the Shepherd that doth lead ; 
One the hope within us born, 
One the joy of Easter morn ! 
Day of hope and prophecy. 
Feast of Immortality ! 

Music : * King's-Chapel Carols,' No. 4. 1890 



DISCIPLESHIP 

On the Judaean hills 

Would I have seen the light 
The watching shepherds saw, 

Turning to noon the night ? 
Would I have seen the star 

That new in heaven shone, 
And followed with the few 

The new-born Christ to own? 

And if mine ears had heard 

The Man of Galilee 
Speaking from heart aflame 

The Truth that maketh free, 
Turning from priest and scribe, 

Dead rite and parchment roll, 
Would 1 have hailed in him 

A Prophet of the Soul ? 



60 DISCIPLESHIP 

Those words upon the mount, 

By way-sides, in the town, — 
Unwelcome to his time, 

Now Holy Scripture grown, ^- 
Would I have read in them 

A message from on high, 
Or joined the multitude 

Who cried out Crucify ? 

Ah, vain for you or me 

To question thus the Past ! 
Not then but now for us 

The fateful choice is cast ; 
Ever the larger faith 

Makes way 'mid doubt and scorn, 
And in its latest word 

Anew the Christ is born. 

The true disciples they. 

The wide earth o'er, who own 
Truth in her manger low, 

Ere yet she mounts the throne : 
Who from the dead Christ's tomb 

Take not the stones to slay 
In blinded fear and rage 

The living Christ to-day. 



DISCIPLESHIP 61 

They hear the angels' song, 

'T is they who see the light 
The watching shepherds saw 

Makino; the heavens brio;ht : 
They see the self-same star 

O'er Bethlehem that shone, 
And follow joyful forth 

The new-born Christ to own. 



1888 



THE MAN OF NAZARETH 

' A CLOUD received him out of sight,' — 
Even so ; and then men knew no more 

The human presence warm and bright, 
As he had walked the earth before ; 

The preacher of the mountain-side, 
Teaching the kingdom's reign within. 

Strong in rebuke of hardened pride. 
Yet pitiful of conscious sin; 

But sceptered now, and throned afar. 
They watched in dread his swift return , 

To see before his judgment bar 

The earth dissolve and heavens burn. 

The gathered clouds of centuries lift; 

No king in wrath descends to reign, 
Yet king-like through the shining rift 

The Man of Nazareth comes again. 



THE MAN OP NAZARETH 63 

O Friend and Brotlaer, draw more near 
The while thy festival we keep ; 

Diviner shall our lives appear 
Held fast in thy high fellowship. 

Christmas, 1890 



MARY'S MANGER-SONG 

Sleep, my little Jesus, 

On thy bed of hay, 
While the shepherds homeward 

Journey on their way ! 
Mother is thy shepherd 

And will vigil keep : 
O, did the angels wake thee ? 

Sleep, my Jesus, sleep ! 

Sleep, my little Jesus, 

While thou art my own ! 
Ox and ass thy neighbors, — 

Shalt thou have a throne ? 
Will they call me blessed ? 

Shall I stand and weep ? 
O, be it far, Jehovah ! 

Sleep, my Jesus, sleep ! 



MARTS MANGER-SONG 65 

Sleep, my little Jesus, 
Wonder-baby mine ! 
Well the sinojins angels 

DO O 

Greet thee as divine. 
Through my heart, as heaven, 

Low the echoes sweep 
Of Glory to Jehovah ! 

Sleep, my Jesus, sleep ! 

Music : * The Carol,' page 44. 1882 



WHITTIER 

No thrush at eve had ever sweeter song 
Than thine whose voice no more on earth 

we hear ; 
Nor winds and flowing streams more please 

the ear, 
Nor to the speech of Nature more belong. 
And yet thy heart beat ever with the throng 
Of toil ; the lowliest life thou didst revere 
And the wide law of brotherhood hold dear, 
Most mindful still of all who suffered wrong. 

Best loved of all the choir we loved so well, 
'T was thine to bring again the Master near, 
And hymn to men the Goodness without end : 
Psalmist we call thee of our Israel, 
Child of the Spirit, poet, prophet, seer, — 
And to us all, of every name, the Friend / 

1892 



WHITTIER 

A RUGGED rock is the mountain, 

Rock from the base to crown ; 
But the mountain glens and valleys, 

Where the brooks come leaping down, 
Are gardens of tender, ferny things. 

Sweet tano;les of green and brown. 

Like the mountain stood our poet 1 

Strength of the hills was he, 
In the quiet sky uplifted, 

A moveless sanctity ; 
And the listening lands heard thunders roll 

Of his Sinai prophecy. 

But the brooks in his heart were singing, 

Singing all night and day, 
And rhymes like the mosses nestled 

Over the ledges gray, 
And a poet's radiant world of flowers 

Out-bloomed from the Yea and Nay. 

1892 



'NOTHING BUT A POET' 

* He sat and talked of his own early life and 
aspirations ; how he marvelled, as he looked back, 
at the audacious obstinacy which had made him, 
when a youth, determine to be a poet and noth- 
ing but a poetj — Edmund Gosse on Robert 
Browning. 

' Nothing but a poet ! ' So he said, and 
wondered 
At the sole persistence of his years. 
Laughing world, you '11 know it, now that, 
silence-sundered, 
He is in the welcome of his peers. 

What said Milton to him, what said Keats 
and Shakespeare? 
O, to see the smile on Dante's face ! 
Catch the great Greek x^^P^^ hear the 'bronze 
throat ' hail him, 
' Browning 's come among us, — give him 
place ! ' 



'NOTHING BUT A POET' 69 

* Nothing but a poet,' singing songs of soul- 
growth, 

Splendor in the pain-throb, rise in fall, 
' Saul the failure * in us re-creating kingly, — 

Songs one surge of morning ! That was all ! 

Browning Commemoration, 1890 



REMBRANDT 

Suggested by the portrait of his mother in the 
Hermitage, St. Petersburg. 

Gazing upon that face where years have 

■wrought 
The record of their mingled loss and gain, 
Where Love and Death, alternate joy and 

pain, 
Have the hid soul to such expression 

brought, — 
Life fills with vaster meaning to my thought. 
'Neath chano;e and loss I read what things 

remain 
To crown at last the struggle and the strain 
Of all our days, remembered or forgot. 

O mighty Master ! Shakespeare of the brush ! 
Interpreting to eye, as he to ear. 



REMBRANDT 71 

The story of earth's passion and its strife, — 
Thy genius caught the new day's morning 

flush, 
Saw glory in the common and the near, 
And on immortal canvas gave us life ! 

1892 



THE SOWER 

^A sower went forth to sow.* 

Along the pathless prairie 

The tread of human feet, — 
Up rise the smoke-plumed cabins 

'Mid springing corn and wheat. 
Where, like a lonely ocean, 

The wind-swept grasses swung, 
The golden sheaves are gathered, 

The harvest song is sung. 

In vigil of the spirit 

A young-eyed listener heard, — 
* Go forth among thy fellows, 

Thy seed the living Word ! 
By springs of joy and sorrow, 

In fields of toil and care. 
Through deserts of temptation, 

Broadcast thy faith and prayer.' 



THE SOWER 73 

From year to year the prairie 

Has waved with ripened grain, 
Borne on the tides of traffic 

Wide over land and main. 
But who shall mart the harvest 

Of nobler thought and deed, 
Of holier faith and purpose, 

Sprung from the sower's seed ? 



O brave and faithful sower, 

Not thine on earth to bind 
The full sheaves of thy harvest. 

The growths of heart and mind 
Outspreads in widening circles 

The life-embodied Word, 
And they shall bear thee witness 

Thy voice who never heard. 



The people cease from labor, 
The children leave their play ; 

All bring thee love and honor 
To crown thy festal day. 



74 THE SOWER 

The heavens glow in beauty 
Lit by the westering sun, 

And God's far stars shall guide thee 
When the long day is done. 

Chester Covel, Seventieth birthday, 1887 



JOHN C. LEARNED 

Thy work abides, though thou hast passed 

from sight : 
Unconsciously hast thou thy monument 
From year to year built fair and permanent 
In lives to which thine own was cheer and 

light. 
Wisdom and meekness clothed thee with 

their might ; 
In thee the sage and saint were equal blent ; 
Strength, courage, tenderness dwelt in thy 

tent, 
Thou soldier of the everlasting Right ! 

By so much as we mourn thee, we rejoice 
That we have known thee in these earthly 

ways, 
And with thee striven for the things unseen ; 
Still in our silences will speak thy voice 
And thy dear memory inspire our days. 
Till we too pass the veil that hangs between. 

December, 1893 



'INCARNATE CHEER' 

' Eave nH I a right to he grave, too, sometimes P 
J. LI. J. 

No rights of gravity to thee, dear friend ! 
We need one face about our world to mend 
Heart's hurt and set jarred minds in tune, 
And sure to do this as the blessed June ; 
One voice whose bell shall ring away all 

fear ; 
One hand in which we grasp ' incarnate 

cheer ; ' 
One steadfast smile rayed out from eyes 

alight, 
To make men say, ' He 's come ! now all is 

right ! * 

To J. LI. J. on his birthday, 1887 



THIRTY THOUSAND 

' Thirty thousand ! ' said the Fate, 

Mixer of the days to be, 
As she passed the mystic gate, — 

Little Quaker baby, she ! 

Thirty thousand days and nights — 
This the dower witli which she came 

All their sounds and all their sights 
Vested in the tiny dame. 

' Thirty thousand,' said the Fate ; 

But who draw the royal breath 
Into deeds the days translate, 

Dainty Queen Elizabeth ! 

Price is high for royal dowers ; 

Thee must earn thy golden state ! 
Spendthrift gods fling out the hours, 

Miser gods keep count and weight. 



78 THIRTY THOUSAND 

Day and night and night and day, 
One by one the thousands flee : 

Lady of the Yea and Nay, 

Thou liast earned thy queenerie ! 

Earned it as a noble should, 

Dauntless, tireless, gentle-strong ; 

Giving Yea to every good, 
Daring Nay to every wrong. 

Not in calendars thy fame. 
But secrete in happy prayer ; 

Lips have blessed thee — not by name 
Thanking God for ' daily care.' 

Thou dost leave a sweeter earth, 
Less of poison, less of fen, 

By thy precedent of worth 

Stablished in the world's Amen. 

Thou art part of all uplift ! 

One tint brighter rises morn 
Henceforth ever, — this thy gift 

Wheresoe'er a child is born. 

To E. B. C, on her eightieth birthday, 1886 



GOLDEN" WEDDING 

What do you see, dear hill-top pair, 
Side by side in the quiet there, 
Lookino; down through the golden air 
On the days of long ago ? 

Sounds of the valley's push and throng. 
Din of its labor and cries of its wrong, — 
Do they rise and blend to an evening song, 
As you stand and listen so ? 

Is the valley filling with shadows dim? 
Do the hills grow bright on the eastern rim. 
The hills where you played so free of limb. 
In the days of long ago ? 

Tell us your secrets, our two-in-one 1 
Do fifty years of the rising sun 
Draw love the closer for each year run, — 
Will you whisper, you who know ? 



80 GOLDEN WEDDING 

Beautiful secrets that none can tell 
Till sunsets chant and the roses spell, — 
As they do for twos ! as two knew well 
In the days of long ago. 

But say, O lover by love long taught, 
Why, under the gray the years have brought, 
She stands as a maiden to our thought, 
And a rose that waits to blow. 

Tell us the secret of home-spun ways. 
Of spinning-wheel hours in city days, 
Clean and calm as a Quaker phrase 
Of the simple long ago. 

Tell what you see on the farther side, 
Where the new horizons open wide, 
And you hear the step of a coming Guide 
The way of the hills to show. 

Out of the quiet that holds you there 
There seems to float through the golden air. 
Like the brooding music after prayer 
Or a song of long ago : — 



GOLDEN WEDDING 81 

* Little we see ; but hand in hand 
Fearless we turn to the still, new land, 
Fearless to go as here to stand ; 
For this in our hearts we know, — 

' Wherever we go. Love goeth too ; 
Whatever may pass, Love lasteth through ; 
And Love shall be sweet and dear and true 
As in days of long ago.' 

For J. D. and M. D. : 1836-1886 



TWILIGHT 

The sunset glow is ebbing ; 

Within the rose-rimmed sky 
The stars wait wide and lonely 

The slow day's passing by. 

The evening dusks the valleys ; 

The hill-tops yet are lit ; 
The shadow broadens upward, 

And the quiet climbs with it. 

All that the day dissevers 
Now, in the twilight dun, 

Nestles again together, — 
The far and the near are one. 



Within her cloistered chamber 
Brooded the evening peace. 

As the dear life faded slowly, 
Too happy to wish release. 



TWILIGHT 83 

In the widening hush she waited, 

In the beautiful after-glow, 
The hills of her memory gleaming, 

The shadows climbing below. 

The holy twilight falling 

Was not of the star and sun ; 
The earth and the heaven lights mingled, — 

And the far and near were one. 

0. M. N., 1894 



'DEATH AS FRIEND' 

After a picture by Alfred Bethel 

So still ! 
The little bird sits on the window-sill ; 
The sun behind him is sinking slow ; 
Down below in the city streets 
The people are going to and fro, — 

Going home, for their work is done. 

' Tong ! Tong ! ' 
It is vesper-hour, 
And soft strong booms 
Steal out from the great cathedral tower 
Over the house-tops, over the plain. 
Out towards the sun : 
' Tong ! Tong ! 
Go home, for work is done ! ' 

The old bell-ringer, 
He, too, is so still ! 
Fifty years, at the vesper hour. 
He has rung the bell in his eyrie tower ; 



' DEA TH AS FRIEND ' 85 

A dweller there with the birds in the sky, 
In the fields of quiet that overlie 
The toil of cities, — ringing ' Peace ! 
Go home, for work is done ! ' 

There, alone. 

Where the undertone 
Of the city toil moans up to him, 
He has done his part in the busy day, 
Ringing the pauses for men to pray, — 
Simply, faithfully, fifty years ; 
Ever, in heart, at his oaken board 
Breaking his bread with the crucified Lord, 

In whose great name 

The bells proclaim 
' Peace ! go home, for work is done ! ' 

One by one 
The strokes sound on. 
He sits in the chair by the window- sill : 
The little bird wonders at him so still. 
So still in the fingers, so still in the face ! 
* What ails the ringer ? ' the people say, 
' The vesper-bell rings long to-day : 
We have all gone home, 
And work is done.' 



86 * DEA TH AS FRIEND ' 

Low, low, 

In the evening glow, 
It tolls and tolls. 
In the belfry stands a hooded shape, 
With a palmer's shell on his shoulder-cape. 
As one who goeth from place to place : 
He grasps the rope with a bony hand, 
Bending with a tender grace 
To each rhythm of sweeping sound. 
With a noiseless foot he has climbed the stair, 
And touched the old man sitting there, 
Waiting for the vesper-hour, and said, 
' To-night I ring for you, old friend : 
Go home, for work is done ! ' 

So still ! 
The little bird flies from the window-sill. 
The sun has set, and down below 
The people are saying, ' It never rang so, 
N'ever before, so sweet and low ! ' 

R. LI. J., 1885 



A. L. G. 

1846 

So early lost, I cannot tell the lift 

Of mother-arms ! A toy or two, her gift ; 

A small white gown, her needle in its seam ; 

And, dim as is a dream within a dream, 

A little figure at a shadow's feet, 

Or walking hand in hand upon the street, — 

A gentle shadow with an unseen face, — 

ISTo smile, no tone, no foot-fall mine for trace : 

That is my unknown Mother ! 

Yet I know 
The inmost currents of my being flow 
From her high springs ; the faiths that in me 

rise 
Have once made happy lights within her 

eyes ; 



88 A. L. G. 

The gardens of my heart are seeded thick 
With border-blooms that first in hers were 

quick ; 
My very thought of God is her bequest, 
Sealed mine before I lay upon her breast ! 

O Mother, could an earthly smile suffice, 
And these not serve me well to recognize ? 
Inwrought and deathless tokens pledge us 

joy 

What day my Mother meets her grateful 
boyl 

1894 



ALMA MATEK 

From many ways and wide apart, 

Obedient to thy call, 
Hither we turn with loyal heart, 

Dear Mother of us all ! 

We walk the well-known paths once more 

Amid the summer's bloom ; 
We pass familiar thresholds o'er, 

And breathe the air of home. 

Nor we alone ; they come unseen, 

Unheard their footsteps fall ; 
Voices long hushed to earth within 

The cloistered silence call. 

O, more than gold has been the lore 
We learned beside thy knee, — 

The faith that grows from more to more, 
The truth that maketh free ; 



90 ALMA MATER 

The strength to do and to endure 
Through good report and ill, 

The heart of love, the conscience pure, 
And the undaunted will. 

Be proud, O Mother, of thy past ! 

It lives in thee to-day ; 
And still its high traditions cast 

Their light upon thy way. 

Our love and hope ring out their chime 

Above thy festival ; 
Blessings upon thee through all time, 

Thou who hast blessed us all ! 

1890 



THE VILLAGE MEETING-HOUSE 

Still stands the ancient meeting-house 

Upon the village-green, 
And white above the circling trees 

The belfry tower is seen. 

Uncolored through the simple panes 
The common sunlight pours ; 

No Gothic arches spring above 
The latched and painted doors. 

Their thresholds witness to the tread 

Of feet long since at rest 
In yonder field of moss-grown slates 

With Bible-text impressed. 

No more at rise and set of sun 

Is heard the numbered toll 
That spoke to all the country round 

The passing of a soul : 



92 VILLAGE MEETING-HOUSE 

Yet still with every new-born week, 

Across the meadows fair 
And over all the upland farms, 

Sounds the old call to prayer. 

I walked again the village street 
By absence made more dear ; 

That summer Sunday held the bloom 
And fragrance of the year. 

I followed with the worshippers 
The ancient house within ; 

For me with all I saw and heard 
Was mingled what had been. 

For memory had new-kindled love, 
And love had quickened faith ; 

I lived that hour within a world 
That knew not change and death. 

I minded not the preacher's theme, 
Nor caught the words of prayer ; 

My thought had passed within the veil 
And walked with spirits there. 



VILLAGE MEETING-HOUSE 93 

The faithful shepherd of the flock, 
Whose years knew such increase, 

Who led in wisdom's simple ways 
And by the streams of peace ; 

The wise and upright citizen, 

To each good cause allied, 
Who brightened more an honored name 

Through all the country-side ; 

And souls that well had borne their part, 

And little children fair ; — 
Their unforgotten faces gleamed 

In the illumined air. 

I love the minster's vaulted roof, 

Its walls of old renown, 
Where sculptured marbles voice the past 

And windowed saints look down : 

Nor less I feel our Hebrew strain, 

Distrustful still of art, 
That lifts to the Invisible 

Immediate the heart. 



94 VILLAGE MEETING-HOUSE 

For inward more than outward is, 
The soul than any shrine ; 

Alone our living love and trust 
The altar make divine. 

Long may the ancient meeting-house 
Rise from the village- green, 

And over all the country round 
Its belfried tower be seen : 

Still may the call to praise and prayer 
Be heard each Sunday morn, 

And bind in growing faith the past 
With ages yet unborn ! 

NORTHBOROUGH, MaSS. 



THE DAYS 

In Father Time's old nursery 

The little Morrows wait, 
Each one impatient to be out, 

Impatient to be great ; 
On bravely through the sun to go, 

On bravely through the showers, 
A world to see, a Day to be ! 

The happy-hearted Hours I 

So one by one he lets them out. 

His Days so young and strong, 
The morning shining in their face, 

And on their lips a song. 
When home they come, their work all done, 

There 's quiet in their ways, 
And shadows rise and haunt their eyes, — 

They 're dear old Yesterdays ! 



96 THE DAYS 

And now we love them for the half 

Of all that we hold dear, — 
The echo- side of every word, 

The far to every near ; 
The sunset touch to every hope 

That fades along our skies, 
The after-dream, the vanished gleam, 

The love in long-shut eyes. 

Rochester : 'Fiftieth Anniversary,' 1892 



THE OLD LOVE-SONG 

Play it slowly, sing it lowly, 

Old, familiar tune ! 
Once it ran in dance and dimple, 

Like a brook in June ; 
Now it sobs along the measures 

With a sound of tears ; 
Dear old voices echo through it, 

Vanished with the years. 

Ripple, ripple, goes the love-song, 

Till in slowing time 
Early sweetness grows completeness, 

Floods its every rhyme. 
Who together learn the music 

Life and death unfold. 
Know that love is but beorinning: 

Until love is old. 

7 



98 THE OLD LOVE-SONG 

Play it slowly, — it is lioly 

As an evening hymn ; 
Morning gladness hushed to sadness 

Fills it to the brim. 
Memories home within the music, 

Stealing through the bars ; 
Thoughts within its quiet spaces 

Rise and set like stars. 

For J. W. C. and A. H. C. : 1865-1890 



THE DEAR TOGETHERNESS 

I DREAMED o£ Paradise, — and still, 
Thougli sun lay soft on vale and hill 
And trees were green and rivers bright, 
The one dear thing that made delight 
By sun or stars or Eden weather, 
Was just that we two were together. 

I dreamed of Heaven, — with God so near ! 
The angels trod the shining sphere, 
And each was beautiful ; the days 
Were choral work, were choral praise : 
And yet in Heaven's far-shining weather 
The best was still, — we were together ! 

I woke, — and lo, my dream was true, 
That happy dream of me and you ! 
For Eden, Heaven, no need to roam, — 
The foretaste of it all is Home, 

Where you and I through this world's 
weather 

Still work and praise and thank together. 



100 THE DEAR TOGETHERNESS 

Together weave from love a nest 

For all that 's good and sweet and blest 

To brood in, till it come a face, 

A voice, a soul, a child's embrace, — 

And then what peace of Bethlehem wea- 
ther. 

What songs as we go on together ! 

Together greet life's solemn real, 

Together own one glad ideal, 

Together laugh, together ache, 

And think one thought, ' each other's sake,' 

And hope one hope, — in new-world wea- 
ther 

To still go on, and go together ! 

Home Dedication, 1891 



HERO BY BREVET 

I SAW a veteran to-day, 

With hobbling foot and staff to stay, 

In slow march by the window stray. 

* What rank ? ' There was no epaulet, — 
Some humble rank that privates get: 
The face said, Hero hy brevet. 

' What regiment ? ' I only know 
They take the front where'er they go, 
As that were badgje enough to show. 

* No colors ? ' None that I could see, — 
A few gray locks were waving free. 
Like shot-torn banners greeting me. 

' In service where ? ' How could I guess ? 
No boast of battles marred the dress. 
But eyes were full of field- success. 



102 HERO BY BREVET 

* No scars or maim, no empty sleeve ? * 
Only the smile that sufferings leave 
And weary days and nights achieve. 

* And all alone, — no comrade-brother ? ' 
Alone, yet loved beyond all other. 

* By whom ? ' By men who call her 

Mother ! 

1886 



NURSERY LOGIC 

There in the nursery stood the case, 
Old and battered and brown with age, — 

Dear Aunt Ann's with the saintly face, — 
Till one of our toddlers, in cherubic rage, 

Chanced on a spring and a drawer flew wide, 

And lo, a plain gold ring inside ! 

Wee Aunt Ann with the mystic smile, 

That was the secret thy eyes held fast ! 
Did they learn their smile in the long-ago 
while 
When the wooers came and the wooers 
passed. 
And not one dreamed that a drawer flew 

wide, 
A drawer with a plain gold ring inside ? 



104 NURSERY LOGIC 

Nobody guessed from then till now, 
Little maid-aunt, thy secret sweet ! 

Then nobody shall, but he and thou, 

Long in the heaven where old loves meet. 

But — knows he yet that a drawer flew wide 

To show his plain gold ring inside ? 

So we all agreed, the children and I, 
Dropping again the ring in its place, 

Never to spy what lives so shy 

There in the heart of the old brown case. 

But the children say, ' If a drawer flew 
wide, — 

There 's a dear little uncle and aunt inside ! ' 

Who ? is his name. O, they know well, — 
Have christened him, wedded him now for 
true! 
But that is her secret, and they won't tell ; 

So it 's just ' Aunt Ann and Uncle Who ? ' 
And (bless their logic !) they hear, inside, 
Three little dream-cousins who laugh and 
hide. 



NURSERY LOGIC 105 

Cousins real to tlie poets small, 

Brooding the dream, as they themselves ; 
Christened and charactered, each and all, 

Discrete, insular, untwinned elves ! 
Poets — or prophets ? Should heaven ope 

wide, 
Whose are the children at Aunt Ann's side ? 

1888 



HOW LITTLE JO NAMED THE 
BABY 

He stood beside the cradle, 

A tender-brooding care, 
Watching with love-illumined eyes 

The baby brother there. 

He stood beside the cradle, 

While busily without 
The mother plied her morning work 

The happy home about. 

Three moons had bloomed and faded 
Since ' Baby * earthward came, 

Nor yet with seeking far or near 
Was found a fitting name. 



IIOIV LITTLE /O, ETC. 107 

Anon the door was opened, — 
The mother paused and smiled, 

As, face all tremulous with joy, 
Up spake the little child : 

' Mamma, I 've named the baby ! ' 
' You have ? What is it, Jo ? ' 

' I 'm going to call him God, Mamma, 
That 's the best name I know.' 

O depth of heavenly wisdom 

Alone to love unsealed, — 
Hid from the wise and prudent ones 

And unto babes revealed ! 

Wee prophet of the Highest, 

Who touched thy little tongue 
To speak so clear the holiest thought 

That e'er was said or sung? 

The preaching of the pulpit 

Seems vague and far away, 
Beside thy bolder faith that sees 

' Immanuel ' to-day. 



108 HOW LITTLE JO, ETC. 

Ah, well if in each other, 
. As through the world we go, 
We saw what in that babe was seen 
And named by little Jo ! 

Cleveland, 1886 



IN THE ALBULA PASS. 

To right, to left, the mountain wall — 
Above, the narrow strip of sky ; 

And at my feet the Albula stream 
With youth's impatience rushes by. 

The air comes cool from snowy heights 
And tonic with the breath of pine ; 

Around me like a glory spread 

The flowers in rainbow beauty shine. 

I leave the cares that weighed me down, 
The heat and burden of the plain ; 

I feel the strengthening of the hills 
And drink the wine of youth again. 

Why thus in haste, bright mountain stream. 
To leave these haunts, so fair to me, 

Full soon to find the dusty plain. 
Too soon the all-engulfino; sea? 



110 IN THE ALBULA PASS 

There comes a voice, — the streams can 
speak ! — 

' Fair is my home and youth is free, 
And glad my days, yet will I go 

On to the plain, the unknown sea ! 

' For life is motion and not rest, 
Nor fear I what at last shall be ; 

The Hand that raised these mountain heights 
Has scooped the hollows of the sea ! ' 

I turn me from the happy stream, 
All bright the years before me lie ; 

The mountains sink as up I climb. 
And nearer grows the widening sky. 

Canton Gkisons, July, 1888 



CORONADO BEACH 

The air is tonic with the salty breath 
0£ coursing billows that at last are free ; 
Sounds low and sweet old Ocean's symphony, 
Whose thought the varying heart inter- 

preteth. 
With upturned face and folded palms in 

death 
Lies Corpus Christi in mute effigy ; 
Point Loma, sphinx-like, gazes o'er the sea 
Nor heeds the questioning wave that breaks 

beneath. 
Along the shore the solemn mountains keep 
Their immemorial watch ; in yonder town, 
Sheltered between them and the curving 

deep, 
Unheard the tides of life move up and down. 

peace of l^ature ! here my burdens fall, 

1 rest upon the mighty Heart of all ! 

San Diego, February, 1894 



DOVER 

Mouse-hole in December, 

Quiet little Dover ! 
What shall I remember, 

Now the days are over? 

Snow in hushes falling ; 

Blue days creeping by ; 
Trees in still processions 

Etched upon the sky ; 
And a silent village 

Where the gray stones lean. 
Whispering of a Dover 

They alone have seen. 

All I shall remember, 

Now the days are over, — 

Mouse-hole in December, 
Quiet little Dover ! 



DOVER 113 

When I slaall be lying 

With a gray stone over, 
Will this great World dim to 

Just a little Dover ? 

Dover, Mass., 1886 



WE SEE AS WE ARE 

The poem hangs on the berry-bush, 
When comes the poet's eye ; 

The street begins to masquerade, 
When Shakespeare passes by. 

The Christ sees white in Judas' heart, 

He loves his traitor well ; 
And God, to angel his new Heaven, 

Explores his lowest Hell. 

1885 



TREE-SURPRISE 

There 's a rapture in the air, 
Thrillino; all the branches bare 
With the musical vibrations of an unheard 
tune; 
Silent trees in winter trance 
Feel a something in them dance, — 
Then a leaf and bud commotion, and a world 
one June ! 

There 's a trouble in the air, 
And a fog of white despair ; 
Stiff and black the trees are standing, — are 
they dead, all dead ? 
In an hour I lift my eyes. 
And, behold ! a tree-surprise, — 
Every twig is flashing crystal from the white 
gloom bred ! 



116 TREE-SURPRISE 

Unlieard music in tlie air, 
Is it rapture or despair 
In my tree of life tlae Hands will play for 
this day's tune? 
But why ask it or why care, 
With that gloom-born beauty there, 
And the Hands to play December that shall 
yet play June ? 

1885 



A DAY IN OCTOBER 

I LEAVE behind the crowded street, 

The city's noise and stir, 
And face to face with Nature meet, - 

Her happy worshipper. 

I walk the unfrequented road 

With open eye and ear ; 
I watch afield the farmer load 

The bounty of the year. 

I filch the fruit of no man's toil, 

No trespasser am I, 
And yet I reap from every soil 

And the unmeasured sky. 

I gather where I did not sow. 
And bind in mystic sheaf 

The amber air, the river's flow. 
The rustle of the leaf, — 



118 A DAY IN OCTOBER 

The squirrels' chatter in the trees, 

The sunlight sifted down, 
The wholesome odors on the breeze 

O'er ripened harvests blown, — 

The hills in distance purple-hued, 

The tinkhng waterfall, 
The ' deep contentment of the wood,' 

The peace o'erbrooding all. 

The maples glow beside the streams 

And fleck the pastures sear, 
Like smiles that break from happy dreams, ■ 

So smiles the waning year ! 

A beauty springtime never knew 

Haunts all the quiet ways. 
And sweeter shines the landscape through 

Its veil of autumn haze. 

The blessing of the early rain 

And all the summer's shine 
Are garnered in the golden grain 

And purple of the vine. 



A DAY IN OCTOBER 119 

What though the groves are silent all, 

No bird within them sings, 
Nor on the quiet meadows fall 

Shadows from sunlit wings : 

Yet is their summer music part 

Of the still atmosphere, — 
So Nature keeps by subtle art 

To sight what pleased the ear. 

And all my separate senses seem 

To be but passive keys, 
Whereon she plays her world-old theme 

To wondrous harmonies. 

I face the hills, the streams, the wood, 

And feel with all akin ; 
I ope my heart, — their fortitude 

And peace and joy flow in. 

Like him of old on Horeb's mount 

I take again my way. 
New-strengthened from the healing fount 

Of this October day. 

Michigan, 1892 



INDEX OF FIRST LINES 



Pagb 

' A cloud received him out of sight ' ... 62 

A little House of Life 31 

Along the pathless prairie 72 

A rugged rock is the mountain 67 

As silent as the sun-gleam in the forest . . 29 

Bring, Morn, thy music ! Bring, Night, 

thy hushes 11 

From age to age they gather 40 

From many ways and wide apart .... 89 

Gazing upon that face where years have 

wrought 70 

He laid his rocks in courses 46 

He stood beside the cradle 106 

I dreamed of Paradise, — and still .... 99 

I leave behind the crowded street .... 117 

In Father Time's old nursery 95 

I saw a veteran to-day 101 

It sounds along the ages 48 

Lo, the Day of days is here ...... 57 



f 



122 INDEX OP FIRST LINES 

Page 

'Mid my life's vicissitude 30 

Mouse-hole in December 112 

No rights of gravity to thee, dear friend . . 76 
' Nothing but a poet ! ' So he said, and won- 
dered 68 

No thrush at eve had ever sweeter song . . 66 

Not when, with self dissatisfied 33 

O Fount of Being's sea 22 

O Light, from age to age the same .... 42 

Lord of Life, where'er they be 50 

One thing I do ; the things behind forgetting 35 

On eyes that watch through sorrow's night . 51 

On the Judaean hills 59 

On the rock and girt with ice ..... . 14 

Prophet souls of all the years 9 

O Thou in lonely vigil led 13 

Thou whose Spirit witness bears .... 20 

Over hills and valleys 26 

Over the land in glory 55 

Play it slowly, sing it lowly 97 

Sleep, my little Jesus 64 

So early lost, I cannot tell the lift .... 87 

So still ! The little bird sits on the window-sill 84 

Still stands the ancient meeting-house ... 91 

The air is tonic with the salty breath . . . Ill 

The morning hangs its signal 16 



INDEX OF FIRST LINES 123 

Page 

The poem hangs on the berry-bush .... 114 

There in the nursery stood the case .... 103 

There 's a rapture in the air 115 

They came, bringing spices, at break of the daj' 52 

The sunset glow is ebbing 82 

' Thirty thousand ! ' said the Fate .... 77 

This edelweiss I wear was not first mine . . 15 

Thy kingdom come, — on bended knee . . 18 
Thy work abides, though thou hast passed 

from sight 75 

To right, to left, the mountain wall .... 109 

Unto thee, abiding ever 24 

What do you see, dear hill-top pair .... 79 

Whatsoever is just and pure 38 

What will the violets be 54 

Where men on mounts of vision 44 






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